danger from Philip, resolved to oppose Antiochus with their fleet.  Nor did they neglect another object that required their attention; the protection of the freedom of the cities in alliance with Ptolemy, which were threatened with war by Antiochus.  For, some they assisted with men, others by forewarning them of the enemy’s designs; by which means they enabled the Cauneans, Mindians, Halicarnassians, and Samians to preserve their liberty.  It were needless to attempt enumerating all the transactions as they occurred in that quarter, when I am scarcely equal to the task of recounting those which immediately concern the war in which Rome was engaged.

21.  At this time king Attalus, having fallen sick at Thebes, had been carried thence to Pergamus, died at the age of seventy-one after he had reigned forty-four years.  To this man fortune had given nothing which could inspire hopes of a throne except riches.  By a prudent, and, at the same time, a splendid use of these, he begat, in himself first, and then in others, an opinion, that he was not undeserving of a crown.  Afterwards, having in one battle utterly defeated the Gauls, which nation was then the more terrible to Asia, as having but lately made its appearance there, he assumed the title of king, and ever after exhibited a spirit equal to the dignity of that name.  He governed his subjects with the most perfect justice, and observed an unvarying fidelity towards his allies; gentle and bountiful to his friends; affectionate to his wife and four sons, who survived him; and he left his government established on such solid and firm foundations, that the possession of it descended to the third generation.  While this was the posture of affairs in Asia, Greece, and Macedonia, the war with Philip being scarcely ended, and the peace certainly not yet perfected, a desperate insurrection took place in the Farther Spain.  Marcus Helvius was governor of that province.  He informed the senate by letter, that “two chieftains, Colca and Luscinus, were in arms; that Colca was joined by seventeen towns, and Luscinus by the powerful cities of Carmo and Bardo; and that the people of the whole sea-coast, who had not yet manifested their disposition, were ready to rise on the first motion of their neighbours.”  On this letter being read by Marcus Sergius, city praetor, the senate decreed, that, as soon as the election of praetors should be finished, the one to whose lot the government of Spain fell should, without delay, consult the senate respecting the commotions in that province.

22.  About the same time the consuls came home to Rome, and, on their holding a meeting of the senate in the temple of Bellona, and demanding a triumph, in consideration of their successes in the war, Caius Atinius Labeo, and Caius Ursanius, plebeian tribunes, insisted that “the consuls should propose their claims of a triumph separately, for they would not suffer the question to be put on both jointly, lest equal honours might be conferred where the merits were